Marian Brown walks to her Nob Hill apartment where she used to care for her twin sister Vivian until a fall a month ago.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Marian Brown walks to her Nob Hill apartment where she used to care...

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Parked in their usual window seat at Uncle Vito's, just below the crest of Nob Hill, the twins are barely through their first glass of merlot in this photo from Sept., 22, 2008. One welcomes an adoring tourist from Phoenix while the other laughs encouragement into the ear of a businessman dining by himself. Marian and Vivian Brown are the twins famous for bringing San Francisco's quirky spirit to the world, via numerous TV and billboard appearances. Don't ask their age, as they'll politely tell you it's none of your business -- though Vivian does admit she's 8 minutes older, saying this if only to remind Marian who's in charge. They argue this for a bit then break into one of their signature tunes ("San Francisco, open your golden gate...") and all is forgotten.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Parked in their usual window seat at Uncle Vito's, just below the...

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Dining alone, one half of the famed San Francisco twins, Marian Brown, 85, looks out the window Uncle Vito's Pizza on Wednesday Aug, 15, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif where she and her sister Vivian have frequented for years. Vivian Brown has fallen ill and has been in the hospital for the past month. "We love each other. I can't wait till she comes back," said Marion Brown.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Dining alone, one half of the famed San Francisco twins, Marian...

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Identical twins Vivian and Marian Brown were sure to turn heads whenever they walked along San Francisco’s streets.

Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice / The Chronicle

Identical twins Vivian and Marian Brown were sure to turn heads...

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Vivian, left, and Marian Brown, identical twins, shake a leg in front of the Transamerica building. Although they were born and raised in Michigan, the Browns have become icons of San Francisco--they took second place in 2000 as the city's "Best Local Character."

Photo: Susan Ragan, Associated Press

Vivian, left, and Marian Brown, identical twins, shake a leg in...

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The Brown twins.

Photo: Chronicle Archives

The Brown twins.

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The Brown twins.

Photo: Chronicle Archives

The Brown twins.

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The Brown twins.

Photo: Chronicle Archives

The Brown twins.

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Sept. 22, 2008 7:12 p.m.: The Brown twins, Marion and Vivian, hob knob with tourist during dinner at Uncle Vito's pizza parlor. Parked in their usual window seat at Uncle Vito's, just below the crest of Nob Hill, the twins are barely through their first glass of merlot. One welcomes an adoring tourist from Phoenix while the other laughs encouragement into the ear of a businessman dining by himself. Marion and Vivian Brown are the twins famous for bringing San Francisco's quirky spirit to the world, via numerous TV and billboard appearances. Don't ask their age, as they'll politely tell you it's none of your business -- though Vivian does admit she's 8 minutes older, saying this if only to remind Marian who's in charge. They argue this for a bit then break into one of their signature tunes I left my heart in San Francisco...and all is forgotten.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Sept. 22, 2008 7:12 p.m.: The Brown twins, Marion and Vivian, hob...

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Parked in their usual window seat at Uncle Vito's, just below the crest of Nob Hill, the twins are barely through their first glass of merlot in this photo from Sept., 22, 2008. One welcomes an adoring tourist from Phoenix while the other laughs encouragement into the ear of a businessman dining by himself.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Parked in their usual window seat at Uncle Vito's, just below the...

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One half of the famed San Francisco twins, Marion Brown, 85, heads into California Pacific Medical Center to see her sister Vivian Brown on Monday Aug, 13, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Vivian Brown has fallen ill and has been in the hospital for the past month.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

One half of the famed San Francisco twins, Marion Brown, 85, heads...

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One half of the famed San Francisco twins, Marion Brown, 85, heads into California Pacific Medical Center to see her sister Vivian Brown on Monday Aug, 13, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Vivian Brown has fallen ill and has been in the hospital for the past month.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

One half of the famed San Francisco twins, Marion Brown, 85, heads...

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After dining alone, one half of the famed San Francisco twins, Marion Brown, 85, leaves Uncle Vito's Pizza on Monday Aug, 13, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Her sister Vivian Brown has fallen ill and has been in the hospital for the past month.

For once, the Brown twins are not in matching outfits. Marian B. is in hers, a leopard-print cowboy hat and car coat, but her sister, Vivian A., older by eight minutes, is in bedclothes at Davies medical center.

"My sister has Alzheimer's, so she has to have 24-hour care, because they're afraid she will go out and get run over or something," says Marian, offering a straight answer to the question everybody who sees her on the streets stops to ask. "Where's your sister?"

The identical twins, who have built themselves into a living San Francisco landmark of irrepressible inseparability, are now barely holding it together, at age 85.

Famous San Francisco Twins, Marion and Vivian Brown share their love of the city at a regualr haunt in this classic editon of the City Exposed from 2008.

Media: San Francisco Chronicle

"We don't look much alike anymore," Marian says, in a taxicab en route to visit Vivian at California Pacific Medical Center's Davies Campus. Her memory has been going for a year now, says Marian, who has been caring for her sister in the one-bedroom apartment on Nob Hill where they sleep in twin beds. But a slipping mind led to a slip and fall about a month ago. Vivian went to a doctor, who referred her straight to the hospital, where she has been ever since.

'Separated before'

"We've been separated before," Marian says, with a tone that would indicate it did not work out. "We taught school for three years. I taught in Hillsdale, Mich., and she taught north of St. John's, Mich."

Marian would like to bring her sister home to be among their 100 or more matching outfits. But she understands that's probably not practical. An assisted living facility would do, even if it means separate bedrooms. She would prefer that to the current predicament of taking a cab to visit her sister only twice a week, which is all she can swing.

"Thirty dollars round trip, I can't afford that. I'm not a millionaire," she says on a drive west from Nob Hill, her mood brightening by the block. She's unfamiliar with seat belts and needs assistance in freeing herself from the device and getting from cab to curb. But by the time she is at the front desk, she's wearing that familiar smile as she proudly announces, "I'm going to visit my twin sister, Vivian A. Brown. She's in Room 3208."

Vivian's interests are being represented by an attorney, but Marian says she has her own interest, which is to find a situation where the twins can be twins. Cost is a barrier. Their rent is $1,088 while all the options she's seen start at $2,000.

"I'm not going to get knee high in debt," says Marian, still a Midwestern pragmatist. "I'm not signing anything until I see the bare facts about the finances."

A relative living in San Diego came up to drive Marian around looking for alternatives, and they wound up in Foster City. "I was worn out by the time I got there," Marian says. "It took over half an hour." Besides, they aren't the Foster City Twins.

"People know us as the San Francisco Twins, and we want to finish up our lives here in San Francisco," says Marian. When they arrived from Michigan more than 40 years ago, she worked as a bank auditor, and Vivian was a legal secretary at an insurance agency. But at 5 foot 1 and 98 pounds, they were meant for bigger things. They've done 25 commercials, and Marian can fire off the names of their clients as if they were the lyrics to a Johnny Cash song.

"We've been on Reebok, IBM, Payless Drugstore, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Joe Boxer shorts, AT&T, Dell Computer, Atachi, Apple Computer," she says before stopping to take a breath. "We've been on 'The Richard Simmons Show,' the Tom Snyder show, the Vicki Lawrence show, the AM show, the PM show. Richard Branson flew us to London for Virgin Atlantic and took us on a shopping trip to Harrods."

'Waiting to see'

But the residuals dried up years ago. There isn't much demand for a single twin, so Marian is living on Social Security while protecting what little savings she has for a proper funeral and burial, the two sisters side by side.

"I don't know which way this is going to turn out," she says. "I'm waiting to see like everybody else."

Former Mayor Willie Brown has vowed to help and recommended donations be made to Jewish Family and Children's Services. The twins are Protestants, but it doesn't matter. The agency will help anyone and has done so for 162 years. It accepts donations through the San Francisco Emergency Assistance Fund ( www.jfcs.org). "We are grateful for the donations that have been made and are making sure the twins are being helped," says Barbara Farber, director of development at the agency.

One way to offer direct aid is to go by Uncle Vito's pizza at Bush and Powell any afternoon at 4 and offer to pay for Marian's daily meal, which costs $20, tip included. The restaurant always throws in a glass of wine.

For years, the twins have sat at the window table so they can watch the colorful new models of cars go by. "We had twin Oldsmobiles back in Kalamazoo," says Marian, referring to the place they grew up. "We tried dressing differently for six months. We didn't like that at all."

Dining alone, Marian has downsized to a mini pizza, from the small they normally split. But she hasn't downsized the chocolate cake for dessert.

"I'm eating the whole piece, which my sister and I used to split," she says with a laugh that doesn't last long. "I'm lonesome," she says. The only relief is the daily phone call to her sister's bedside.

"I say, 'This is a hug for you, Vivian, and that's a kiss,' and we both smack our lips on the phone," she says. "I see improvement, even over the phone."